DANCING DEFINED.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 61, 9 September 1905, Page 11

DANCING DEFINED.

With the years we (says London Telegraph) have got further and further away from not only the elementary rules which govern' the ait of dancing, but from even a semblance of the grace and good taste which should distinguish its practice. Every canon hits been violated, and dancing has degenerated into a romp. So at least we are told, and our consciences force us to admit there is truth underlying the charge. The degeneration has. been gradual, but we are now nationally condemned. It is the English people who have grown slack in the observance of the graceful measures our grandmothers delighted in. But the Americans are with us too. They cannot dance, but they hustle through certain figures, and pretend to dance when they can only romp. The men, it seems, are chiefly to blame. Years ago girls would have refused to dance with a man unless he could danee — nowadays she may consider herself exceedingly fortunate to get a man inside a ballroom who even pretends to dance. The majority % can waltz tolerably well, but their diversified styles are harassing to a degree. Consider, for instance, a girl's experience at an ordinary naval dance. During the evening she will have to accommodate herself to half a dozen variations of the waltz step, the jumpy hop of the youthful lieutenant or the quick slide sideways affected by the navigating man, the slow and the truer waltz of the older men, and, besides, intricate interpretations of each. It is no good complaining, dancing men are too scarce to cavill at tlieir style, and, moreover, I each is convinced that his own is correct.